The Logic Error

One of the hardest types of error to debug is the logic error. Your code compiles, your code runs but it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. There is no error message pinning down a syntax error or helpful exception message showing where the program stopped and why, you just have to examine your code for your mistake.

In this post I want to present such a situation. The program (Processing sketch) is straightforward – there is a ball bouncing inside a box at constant speed. To make sure it is constant the sketch uses the elapsed time between frames to calculate the distance the ball should move. If the ball hits the left or right sides then the horizontal velocity is reversed by multiplying by -1. The same logic is applied if the ball hits the top or bottom sides when we multiply the vertical velocity by -1.

The program logic makes sense but it doesn’t work properly. If you copy and paste the code into Processing and run the sketch long enough you will eventually see the ball do something peculiar (it might take several minutes so be patient). If nothing happens on your computer then this video shows the results of running the sketch on mine.

Before you read the explanation give the problem some thought and see if you can work out why this is happening.
If you haven’t worked it out yet don’t worry it took me a while too when it first happened to me.

Explanation
The ball moves at constant speed but the elapsed time between frames is not. This means that the distance traveled by the ball between frames can vary. Now consider the ball approaching the right wall, eventually the ball hits the wall and the X velocity is multiplied by -1. On the next frame the ball moves left but what happens if the condition

ballX + ballSize > right

is still true. The velocity is reversed again so on the next frame the ball moves right. The X velocity will be reversed each frame so the ball jiggles horizontally until it gets back inside the box. You can see what I mean here –

The Solutions
If we can explain the problem then we can develop appropriate solutions. Obviously the algorithm used in the rebound function has a logic error. I will present 3 alternative algorithms which solve this problem.

Solution 1
This the simplest algorithm to implement and only involves changing the velocity. If the ball hits the left wall then make the X velocity positive and if hits the right wall make the X velocity negative, then do a similar thing for the top and bottom walls. We can see this algorithm in action here –

It also means that if the ball starts outside the box, no matter how far outside, it will end up bouncing inside the box.

Solution 2
This algorithm is a simple variation of the original one. After multiplying by -1 reversing the velocity we update the ball position again using the same elapsed time. This has the effect of bringing the ball back inside the box.

Solution 3
Like solution 1 we test each wall separately but we still multiply the velocity by -1. The difference is that we move the ball inside the box so that it is just touching the wall. On the next frame, the ball will move further into the box.

In this solution there will one frame where the ball is in contact with the wall on every rebound. This can give a slightly better ‘visual bounce’ than the other algorithms.

Conclusion
Notice that in all three solutions the ball trajectory after rebounding is different and none of them represent a real world rebound, they are all an approximation. There are solutions that provide more ‘accurate’ rebounds but they are computationally more intensive so you have to balance accuracy against efficiency.
Logic errors can be hard to find but it is important to understand what is happening in your code if you want reliable solutions.